1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for agitating bulk material in a hopper to achieve accurate and uniform flow of the bulk material through a discharge opening of the hopper. More particularly, the present invention relates to animal feeders and to devices for agitating the feed in the hopper and thereby achieving accurate and uniform flow of the feed to a feed trough.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Raising farm animals for the meat is a highly competitive industry; and so it is essential that the blend of feed must produce the greatest weight gain in relation to cost. However it is equally important that wastage of feed be avoided.
Among the feeds that are used for raising hogs, high moisture grains are used, such as corn and milo. These grains are ground, sometimes mixed with other nutrients, and stored, sometimes in a silo. The moisture contents of these feeds may be quite high, sometimes twenty-five to thirty percent, or even thirty-five percent moisture.
High fat feeds are also economical feeds for feeding farm animals such as hogs. High fat feeds include from one up to five percent animal fat; and so they tend to stick and clog an animal feeder.
Common to the industry have been hog feeders that include a hopper, an opening in the lower portion of the hopper for discharging feed into a feed trough, a vertically-disposed shaft in the hopper that extends downwardly through the discharge opening, a distribution disk or a feed sweep for controlling the flow of feed through the discharge opening, and an animal-actuated arm for turning the shaft.
The distribution disk, or feed sweep, has been disposed on the shaft and has been located either immediately above, or immediately below the discharge opening. Turning the shaft and the distribution disk has caused feed to flow through the discharge opening.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,353,329 and 4,462,338, Thibault discloses an animal feeder in which he combines an animal-actuated feed arm with a feed sweep for metering the flow of feed from the discharge opening of the hopper; and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,338, Thibault includes a metering disk in the hopper to cooperate with the feed sweep in supplying the flow of feed to the hopper.
Animal feeds, especially if they have a fairly high moisture content, or if they have a high fat content, tend to bridge across the hopper near the discharge opening. Therefore, in order to obtain reliable flow of the feed through the discharge opening, it has been necessary to provide some means of agitating the feed inside the hopper and close to the discharge orifice.
Reynolds, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,158,253, discloses a feeder in which an agitator rod is fastened to a vertically disposed shaft and extends radially outward from the shaft. In his design, the shaft and agitator are stationary; and the hopper is turned by animals eating from the trough.
In contrast, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,329, Thibault uses an elongated rod for an agitator which is similar to the agitator used by Reynolds; but Thibault rotates the shaft and agitator rod inside a stationary hopper.
Bohlmann, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,151, discloses a design in which an animal-actuated lever and a feed agitator are formed by a flat and elongated strip of metal that extends upwardly though the discharge opening into the hopper to provide a feed agitator, and that extends downwardly and radially outward from the discharge opening to provide an animal-actuated arm.
The high moisture feeds, and the high fat feeds, particularly after being stored for a length of time, tend to pack into a firm mass. Sometimes these feeds pack into a mass that is so resistant to being agitated that animals at a feeder are unable to provide sufficient force to an actuating arm to agitate the feed and start the flow of additional feed through the discharge opening. At other times, these high moisture and high fat feeds will pack so hard that the agitator rod will be broken as the feeding animal actuates the actuator arm in an attempt to obtain additional feed from a clogged animal feeder.
Animal feeders of the prior art designs have not achieved the economy that is necessary to profitable animal feeding because of wasting feed.
One of primary causes of wasting has been the result of feeding excessive quantities of feed into a feed trough. Typically, animal-actuated arms have been placed where rooting animals accidentally actuate the actuator arm as they eat from feed already in the trough. Thus, even when an abundance, or even an excess of feed is already in the trough, more feed is discharged by the eating animals. Typical of such designs are those shown by Thibault, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,353,329 and 4,462,338, and by Bohlmann in U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,151.
Another cause of wasting feed has been that some animal feeders dump feed on top of the heads or snouts of eating animals. Subsequently, this feed is carried out of the feeder as the animal leaves the feed and soon falls onto the ground or into the mud where it is lost.
A third cause of wasting feed with prior art designs is that the animals must leave the feeder and go to another location for drinking water.